Diogo Ribeiro

Still playing Sid Meyer's Pirates! Just went trough defeating one of the pirates who is tied to the main character's story. Strangely I could've sworn it's the second time I've dealt with the same pirate to get a second part of a map... Hmm. There's several things I still need to get accostumed to like the continuously changing gameworld; at one point I had taken a city to be under French (whom I inadvertedly sided with in the beginning) dominion and headed there for ship repairs since my reputation with the French enables me to repair ships for free... It had been taken over by Spanish forces and I got stumped. Fortunately there was a French outpost nearby. I know the game allows me to have a fleet but aside more crew members and a larger storage capacity what are the benefits? I've made a fair living with just raiding other ships, taking them to nearby cities and selling them along with cargo. Does it factor into the total number of units I can use when trying to raid cities and outposts or are these limited by the current flagship? Also, what can I do with land property given to me by nobles? Still, I'm finding the game to be very fun at this point; although I think I'm noticing some things which lend to repetitiveness (like promotions and courting mayor daughters). But I plan to suck this game dry and not let one single drop go to waste.

As long as they build a game that reacts to my style of play.

With most of the inbreds coming from Bioware's side of the family. " Nice site, though. Thanks for the link.

I thought that only cropped up after you found it ? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> If I recall correctly it would only popped up as an objective given to the Vault Dweller by the Overseer after the Water Chip was returned, or it could be an objective the Vault Dweller discovered on his own without having to find the chip.

You needn't get the Water Chip, you could deal with the Mutant situation instead (wheter by destroying them or joining them).

I was going to shake my fist at you for having deleted the message only to find out you posted again. Sneaky, vewy sneaky. I'll try to set up a simple page of some sort to have readilly available information. Still, that other portuguese page will remain there as it's not game-related and it has to remain that way

It sounded great but I am somewhat hesitant to even try and derive even the slightest things from it because I probably wouldn't feel good about myself... We were once the center of the known world but we're no longer a threat, except to ourselves that is. Give a man a fish and he will eat it; give Portugal a flagrant lack of civism, culture and wit and we will be quite content in our smallness.

Yes sir! Mission accomplished! What I need is to create a website that conjugates both project so information doesn't have to be related in a blog.

Thanks for the advice, alanschu

The remake.

Sid Meyer's Pirates!

Hargrimm? (did I win? :ph34r:)

It's going to be great. Most choices will be somewhere between awesome and pure ownage, but one thing we can all agree is that it will rock, rock long and hard. All the development docs are clocking at +2.5 Mb of "awesome!" written all over them and you can't go wrong with that Just kidding. Eh... Not sure if you were around then. It's not like there is that much info, so I'll just point you into what little there is. Here's a small introduction to it, some insight into the story here, and finally a very brief snippet on the amount of races. Biggest problem at this point is twofold. On one hand there's the story or rather writing the characters into the story and how their struggle would provide credible plot points that would draw the player in; this is the main difficulty I have at the moment. On the other hand since I'm not sure of what Neverwinter Nights 2 can do there are some gameplay elements which I'm not sure we will be able to implement but likely it can be changed into something else.

It does my little black and shrivelled heart some good to be complimented on my writing by someone who writes much better than me. Do you mean in the context of a M

For reference the graphical engine was entirely different but apparently things like databases were kept in more or less the same way.

Judging from your description Spiteful Spirit is "simply" a damage over time effect, Lingering Curse seems to be a specialized variation of Dweomer Shield, while Backfire also seems to be a different way of Reflection Shield. Now none of that is meant to dismiss Guild Wars' spellcasting system or the underlying combat mechanics they provide but likewise several of its spells can also be narrowed down in the same way you did with Arcanum's spells; and I'm sure this can be applied to several other games. It seems clear that Guild Wars' combat, at least when it comes to spellcasting is more superior in options and applications, but then again Guild Wars seems to be strictly based around combat so it's not surprising to find a combat-oriented game to succeed in that very field while a game that isn't exclusively focused on combat to not reach the same level of depth. Note that this isn't meant to justify Arcanum's poor combat but you seem intent on reducing any and all of its combat options to things of less importance or to make them seem so indistinguished to the point of there not being a reason to choose one over others. I think it's sufficient to say that Arcanum is no Guild Wars, but it's also not trying to be. It could be much better but it isn't that abysmal. Though at this point this has become a circular point since it's obvious we both agree on this. Not really since a broken weapon can't always be restored back into its previous resistance, and relying on a form of attack that loses attack power due to continuous confrontations with a given enemy type may not work out for a character; it may be best for him to enchant his fists and use them as a more resilient attack method that won't crack (pun intended) under pressure. But I think the issue here is fleeting because as you say it's relative. It can be used as a means to give the character an advantage over his enemies' action points but it's not the same as naturally having more action points than his enemies. And in some cases of characters who naturally have a high number of action points it may still be in their best interest to use Congeal Time because their action point total may not be enough to whitstand or counter the attack(s) an enemy with less action points would perform. I disagree, as I think that a physical blow which may miss but may also cause additional damage or effects compared to a magical attack that never misses but will not cause additional damage or effects have a considerable positive and negative attached to them which can influence players' decisions to character building as well as their use in combat. They don't pick up their weapons. Obsidian's boards also make the argument seem bigger because of the quoting limits

Can't; 'am allergic to online games. That, plus the character choices left open by that advantage gained by the distance. There are hotkeys. Hitting and running isn't entirely successful because Fatigue factors into movement. A character who uses distance and careful examination of Action Points to run, let the enemy move towards him, go to the enemy, attack it then run back will lose more Fatigue points - and therefore potentially making itself more open to attacks - than he would by taking advantage of other actions, like simply running away (which would cause less fatigue than moving to one place then moving to the other). And it was this very thing I mentioned earlier in regards to the ordinary set of effects found in other games. For instance, I wound up not using most of the spells in Baldur's Gate 2 because they fit your very description - "when I clicked, the monster's hit points would go down" - and so I only used those that, among the basic damage-dealing effect, did so the fastest and hardest. Same for Torment. When it came to damage-dealing options, most were pretty standard and not all too special so it boiled down to only a handful being recurringly used; which doesn't mean there weren't more options but player discretion will unerringly gravitate towards the best or optimal solutions.

How many games are there where the main villains' plan is to conquer the world trough destroying every life force on it? Most of the time it's centered around someone conquering a gameworld so they can rule over it trough power or oppression; or the simple act of conquering or triumphing over something which may or may not oppose the players but will regardless have the two entities clash. But total annihilation to end the suffering of life isn't something I remember seeing used that often as a motive for a videogames' main villain, as compared to the many instances in a videogame where I've seen villains trying to conquer the world for a vague, sometimes even abstract notion of - and desire for - power. I don't think it was terribly special; it just managed to be more appealing to me because for the most part the main villains' motives weren't exactly typical, and neither were the main events that defined the story. But this wasn't your previous point or at least does not seem to be an adequate follow up to what you had stated earlier, which was that J.C. Denton was not your or my character because he did not conform to a list of specifities which in turn justified that more assumptions of the character be made in lieu of his definition at the player's hands. Of course it is. If you'll note, I didn't say Arcanum's character motivation was better than that of Baldur's Gate 2; I said I found character motivations in Arcanum are just as lacking as most other games out there, Baldur's Gate 2 or Deus Ex being the examples you asked me to provide. wait what I always considered debuffs to be spells which removed additional protections placed on characters, such as a Dispel effect clearing up the effects of a 'buffed' mage who had cast Armor or Ironskin on himself.

His kit being tied to his place in the story only clicked after he made questions about the PC's past. If there had been more but subtler interjections, instead one large dialogue clearly foreshadowing his exagerated concern about the PC's lineage, maybe his intention wouldn't have been so noticeable.

No, O RLY is forevah!

I'd like to see a setting which took on the premise of Arcanum - of magic and technology opposing itself - but not on all levels, meaning some magic and technology could work together. The more powerful the magic and the technology involved, the more dangerous it would be to make them work together; but the smaller manifestations could probably function together, such as magical projectiles being fitted into and used as flintlock ammunition, or small magical currents being used in street lamps. Perhaps there could be a middle ground with the use of electricity for the powering of vehicules to be replaced with an equivalen in magic so you'd have magical powered steam trains or flying ships.

Say Megatron, whatever do you plan on doing with that big arm cannon?

Optimus Prime's bastard son?

I don't think I've ever been called a nutjob. On the other hand I'm pretty sure a handful of people would agree with me when I say I should be dragged into a dark alley and taken out. Am I right, fellas? Eh, eh? :: wink, wink ::

You mean he is a warped version of what I could become? :ph34r: